[Noobtber]

Hello all,

On my AH3, I normally run a stage 0 BM3 tune and a stage 3 xHP transmission tune. Recently, I had the car in the dealer for a rough idle issue and the dealer said that they detected a "fault for aftermarket tuning". Before I brought the car in, I had full uninstalled both tunes, so I'm a little stumped as to why they were able to see this. Is anyone familiar with this fault? Is there a way for me to check for it (using e-sys if possible)?

Thanks,

Justin

[LA1Z24]

There is a flash counter in the DME, as well as a log that shows the calibration ID's that have been flashed to the ECM. BMW knows every calibration ID they have ever flashed, so when they come across one that is not in their 'handbook', then they know it's been tuned. Same as the VAG TD1 flag.

[BimR]

Dealers have the ability to see tunes. Some dealers will ignore the issue but if there is a fault with the car that they can attribute to the tune and not do the work, they will.

[thejeremyman9]

Yup, as stated above there are several ways the dealer can detect, should that chose to investigate. Flash counter is one way, although some like MHD allow you to reset the flash counter when uninstalling the relocking the DME. They can also detect if the car has been tuned by other data stored on the ECU due to the fact that engine load, boost, etc, will be outside the bounds for normal operation on stock tune. Once you flash a tune, you should assume that the dealer will be able to detect your car has been tuned in its life, even if uninstalled before going in, and use that as justification for warranty claims related to affected components. The "affected components" part is key, as is their needing to investigate. Lots of people, myself included, bring cars in tuned/modded for warranty unrelated to powertrain and it gets covered no questions asked (oil leaks, issues unrelated to engine/trans/drivetrain, etc).

[im_an_alien]

Every dealer knows people tune their cars. I too have not had any warranty work denied because of my tune, and they always call with the "we're going to wipe your tune" bit ..

[Noobtber]

Thanks for all the helpful advice. I'll keep this in mind in the future!